100 Greatest Animated Films

(NEW June 2018) Animated films are not their own genre, but their own medium. Film transforms the millenia-old ability to directly place color and lines on paper into a way to create entire worlds. This selection runs the gamut from family-friendly musical comedies to documentaries and mature explorations of the world around us. What they all share is a the ability to let the viewer catch a glimpse of the sublime. You can see a list of sources used to compile the list here.

#1) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(1937 - dir. David Hand and others)

This is the big one - the one the changed moviemaking forever. Snow White's triumph as a piece of art is matched by its financial and cultural success. Disney's power to shape and move billions of childhoods was made possible by this incredible piece of filmmaking. READ: The women behind 'Snow White' by CineSuffragette

#2) Spirited Away

(2001 - dir. Hayao Miyazaki)

Less than two decades old, Miyazaki's film is widely regarded as the greatest animated Japanese film ever made. The story of a 10-year-old girl moving between worlds resonates deeply, reminding one of Alice in Wonderland alongside older Western and Japanese myths.READ: The Little Things: An Appreciation of Spirited Away at Tor.com

#3) Toy Story

(1995 - dir. John Lasseter)

Like Snow White, Toy Story is one of those rare single films that you can point to as having changed the medium forever. It pioneered a new way of doing animated, and showed it could have just as much heart as traditional styles. READ: How Toy Story changed movie history at TIME

#4) Beauty and the Beast

(1991 - dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise)

The 1991 film is the most critically-acclaimed exemplar of the 'Disney Renaissance.' Nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards back in a time when animated films were informally excluded from those sorts of accolades, Beauty and the Beast managed to dazzle and romance both adults and children at the same time.READ: An Architectural Analysis of the Film Beauty and the Beast at Interiors.com

Fantasia was not popular with audiences when it was first released, but over the decades many of its scenes have become iconic. This type of marriage of filmic movement and music was a grand experiment. 78 years later, music videos are commonplace, but no one has been able to hold a candle to Disney's achievement.READ: Fantasia (1940) at DecentFilms

#7) Pinocchio

(1940 - dir. Norman Ferguson, T. Hee)

Pinocchio's gorgeous animation and moving story are part of Disney's brilliant follow-up to Snow White. Does any other children's film explore so successfully what it means to be human?READ: Review of Pinocchio by Roger Ebert

#8) My Neighbor Totoro

(1988 - dir. Hayao Miyazaki)

Miyazaki's story of two girls befriended by woodland spirits has charmed audiences for 30 years. (Yes, 30!) Miyazaki developed the idea for Totoro while planning a children's book. Now, the creature has become one of the most recognizable characters in the world.READ: My Neighbor Totoro: A Visual Appreciation at Nerdist

#9) The Iron Giant

(1999 - dir. Brad Bird)

This Cold War parable was the first feature film Brad Bird directed. He was an animator for Disney, working on The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. He would lated direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille. You can see Bird's mastery of both forms in The Iron Giant - seamlessly combines the CGI giant with the subdued hand-drawn animation used for the rest of the film.READ: The Iron Giant is a masterpiece and is on Netflix right now at GQ